Monthly Archives: June 2014

I had started off with the Oral B Braun Professional Care 1000 as my first electric toothbrush and after having used it for a few days, I can tell you now there is no way I’m going back to a manual toothbrush.

I would also like to say before I start the comparison that when you buy an electric toothbrush, head to a dental hygienist for a good solid cleaning first, otherwise you’re wasting your time.

Get a good starting position and maintain perfectly clean teeth with regular brushing after each meal if possible, or at least twice a day.

Oral B Braun Professional Care 1000

This is by no means a bad toothbrush. It is certainly much better than a manual. Without going into too much technical detail, it has a rotating head and the action is mechanical.

My main gripe with this toothbrush is that the action rotates which isn’t great for your gums. Sure you’ll end up with clean teeth but what about gums?

However the price isn’t bad, so if you really cannot afford a Philips then get this one.

Price is right

Better than a manual

Does the job

Not great for gums

Philips Flexcare Platinum

This was a bit more expensive, so I recommend buying one from your dental hygienist who might be able to offer you a better price.

What I noticed is that the brushing experience is much more satisfying. Since it doesn’t rotate it’s great for both teeth and gums. You can even clean your tongue with it.

As a cleaner it’s perhaps a little better than the Oral B, but the Oral B cleans teeth perfectly too. The main emphasis here is on the gums, you can clean right up to the top of the gum line with the Philips, something you cannot do with the Oral B.

The Philips is overall a Porsche, while the Oral B is a Volkswagen Golf, while a manual toothbrush would be a 2nd hand Mazda 323.

The Golf is great compared to the Mazda, but the Porsche is leaps and bounds better than the Golf.

Verdict

Facebook gets stagnant quick : It doesn’t matter if you have 20 or 400 friends, your feed is heading in one direction and it aint up.

It’s initially engaging: Sure it is, while the general populous get loaded up. There will be a ton of interesting photos and posts, stuff from their childhood and other treats.

That content dries up: Yup most normal folk exhaust their hidden gems quick, and so what follows? Remember FB is about content creation. “What’s on your mind posts” and “Daily wall posts” are all FB mechanisms to get you (the digital sharecropper) to create new content, along side this content ads get posted and that’s their business model.

So what the hell does the average person do once they’ve uploaded all their photos and shared their story of their annual holiday to Greece?

User classifications form: Check your feed right now and you’ll see that the people who post on a regular basis tend to follow a certain theme and continue to post in the style of that theme.

For example I have someone in my feed who posts aviation pictures, literally every single day. Another posts news about her kids.

Check it out, the content creators in your feed can be divided into 2 categories:

Original content creators

Reposters

Original content creators usually post along a certain theme and don’t deviate and usually have a defining hobby or interest.

Some examples:

Look I’m a mommy. Look at our normal, complete family, blah blah blah

I’m a skydiver or an adrenaline junky.

I do something you will never be able to do and am proud of it (make furniture, fly, surf)

I’m a musician (Self promoting)

I’m a party girl / student / hipster and I do these social events at least once a week

Original content creators will never run out of new material because as part of their life cycle, they’re either obsessed with that one thing, or they’re very proud of it, and you totally need to have this shoved down your throat.

Reposters

These are people who have a busy life. Usually the work they do might be considered “standard” work such as an office job or something not worth bragging about.

Reposters want a piece of the FB pie, they too want inclusion, love and acceptance but they have no new content of their own that they would consider posting.

They then, without original content post all kinds of crap that they’ve manged to find on the internet, stuff they think a) Defines their identify b) Stuff you might find interesting – worth noting that A is the primary objective.

Some examples:

Motivational images

Famous speeches

Funny stuff / Daily humor

Shocking content

News

That’s nearly it, and we could leave it at that, but there are still 2 other types to cover which fall into the original content creation category.

Poor old wretched me: Poor old wretched me shares pitty stories with you. These might not even be totally dramatic and their updates can be one liners in an attempt to find acceptance and worth.

Poor old wretched me might make posts like:

Cars they only break down when you need them

It’s Tuesday and I’ve already had it up to here

Would someone explain to my boss that overtime should be paid

The list goes on, usually they rope you in with blanket statements that could apply to many people and this generates likes which makes them feel valued.

Good guy Greg: He might not have original content, and he might live a mundane life but he doesn’t bitch about it, instead his posts are all about exposing some hidden enthusiasm towards life.

These people will post stuff like:

Sorry to say Goodbye weekend, see you again this coming Friday.

Monday we try really hard to love you too

I’m typing this then shutting down my computer and off to have a Bacardi with the boys

As the holiday season approaches I hope you all get a good break and see you all soon.

Chess is the one game I play more than the rest. I’ll typically start my day with at least 2 games before work, and another 3 later during the day.

Playing Chess frequently without analysis and study might be fun, but your rating won’t improve very much.

If you don’t even have a rating then perhaps it is time you sign up for FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) . It won’t cost you anything and you’ll be playing real people.

I’m not a fan of playing against computers. I just don’t do it. Technology is however great at offering post game analysis.

I think often we get so caught up in studying rules and positional analysis that at least in my game, I’ve overlooked short term tactics.

This is until I picked up http://www.chesstempo.com – once again another free service, check out the tactics training section.

This will drop you in various positions from real games, unlike those unnatural chess puzzles you might find in newspapers. To solve these positions might seem simple, but the conditions are just to make the best move, this means you’re not always looking for mate or a quick win yet these scenarios are included.

You get dropped into these truly juicy positions that if you don’t rush to solve will eventually help you learn short term strategy. Eventually you’ll get quicker at solving these, so don’t rush.